Chinese vase mistakenly believed to be a fake by leading experts and worth
just £150 astonishes auctioneers as it fetches £114,500

A chipped vase mistaken as a fake by some of the world's top experts and given a measly £150 price tag has shocked the antiques world after fetching a staggering £114,500.

The Chinese porcelain vase reached 700 times its estimated value after experts wrongly judged it to be a fake and sent it for sale at a small West Wales auction house.

"I started the bidding off at £500 and the internet just melted so we knew something was happening."

Auctioneer Nigel Hodson

The art collection of an eminent Chinese businessman, who was based in London, was sent to be auctioned following his death three years ago.

Leading experts from China had travelled to the UK to view the items in the estate and sent the most expensive pieces back to China to be auctioned and the 3,000 remaining pieces, which they believed were fake or worth little, to Peter Francis Auctioneers in Wales.

But it soon became apparent on Wednesday that the experts had been mistaken and the 19cm high Chinese-moulded porcelain vase with elephant head handles was an original.

Bids from across the world flooded in for the piece, which saw a bidding war break out between a collector from the West Midlands and a businessman in China, who ultimately won.

Experts from China had come from Beijing and spent a week inspecting the items. A lot of the items were sent to China and the rest were sent here. Photo: Wales News Service Ltd. "I started the bidding off at £500 and the internet just melted so we knew something was happening," auctioneer Nigel Hodson said.

"Experts from China had come from Beijing and spent a week inspecting the items. A lot of the items were sent to China and the rest were sent here, which the experts believed were fake or copies.

"When the bidding began a protracted battle started we realised this was something special.

The auctioneers in Wales still a further 300 pieces from the collection to auction, thousands of items already sold have amassed a £500,000 profit.

The items were left to the man's grandchildren, who now live around the world, following his sudden death and were sold in Wales as one of his relatives lives there.

The family have asked not to be named.

When Mr Hodson broke the news to the seller, he received a one-word email back saying "Gulp!!".

He said the vase was taken on the basis it was a 19th-century copy of a much-older original - but specialists who studied the item when its description was published on Peter Francis' website clearly came to different conclusions about its provenance.